Here in Tafa in Northern Nigeria people are farmers and many took time to even accept that the pandemic exists, never mind how dangerous it is for humanity. This is because very few of them have access to TV, they cannot read, write or speak English.
Eventually more awareness campaigns were made through radio and in
collaboration with the local religious and community leaders. Even so, it
was very difficult for people to understand the reason for the closure of
interstate borders, shopping malls, cinemas, restaurants, airports, schools
and offices, cancelling games and vacations, no big gatherings, and closing of the places of worship, and even where people were allowed to go, there were temperature checks and obligatory use of hand sanitizers.
Covid-19 changed the whole atmosphere in our social, economical and religious daily life, provoking anxiety and panic. People were worried as to how they would cope with a disease with no cure. Being a new virus, no one is sure of his or her immunity. Nobody anticipated such an infectious disease nor the deaths which seemed to go on and on. The situation in our markets, parks, institutions and social gatherings caused fear and anxiety. However, people were made to understand how we are to behave even though many things about the pandemic are beyond our control, how long it will last is uncertain, and how other peoples’ behaviour cannot be predicted. God alone knows our communities’ future.
Thank God some people are washing hands, covering their mouths etc.
Both Church and Government are caring for Covid-19 affected families
in different ways. They have shown true love and respect for the poor,
the vulnerable and the sick by distributing food items to cushion their
hardships following lockdown. The foodstuffs such as rice, grains, yam,
vegetable oil, beans, semolina are being distributed. Our own parish is
providing facemasks, buckets for hand washing water, sanitizers, temperature checking machines, and first aid boxes. These efforts are going
a long way to helping people to cope with the Covid-19 situation. We are
doing what we can and for the rest we are in the hands of God.
Fr. Virgilius Kawama MAfr is originally from Zambia. He has published a book ‘A Pastoral Approach to Our Modern Pandemics: HIV Aids and Covid 19.
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